Alexander Volkanovski outlines his ideal path to an Ilia Topuria rematch
Alexander Volkanovski foresees a sequel clash transpiring with Ilia Topuria in a path that involves the former kingpin of 145 pounds dispatching Diego Lopes as well as Movsar Evloev. This road to a Topuria rematch was outlined during an interview with David Adesanya on the FREESTYLEBENDER YouTube channel ahead of UFC 314.
In the headliner of that pay-per-view, Volkanovski will be fighting Lopes for the vacant featherweight title but the Australian is looking at the macro viewpoint of his career for this calendar year. When getting into the specifics of all of that as he addressed the wave of young, hungry contenders in his weight category, Alexander Volkanovski said:
"The new blood's here. You've got Diego [Lopes] and then I plan on going out there, getting that belt back, and I want to fight Movsar [Evloev] straight away. I don't care like you know what I mean? Movsar, undefeated, another younger guy coming through, you know what I mean? Someone that I haven't fought."
Volkanovski continued:
"So there's still some exciting things there. Like for me to go out and take out the new school, back to back, undefeated young prospect as well in Movsar, man, that's incredible. Incredible, you know what I mean? That's exactly what I plan on doing and I plan on even getting another one in this year."
Check out Volk's ideal outcomes for regaining and defending the UFC featherweight belt [at the 16:50 mark] below
Alexander Volkanovski expounds upon some of his other ideas for the future
Alexander Volkanovski seemingly has his focus on quite a few of the power players at featherweight and even beyond, as he continued to articulate in the interview above.
When the 36-year-old was touching on potential future fights with Patricio Pitbull as well as the man who handed him his lone pro MMA loss at featherweight, Alexander Volkanovski stated [at the 17:44 mark in the video above]:
"This is perfect world for me. Diego, Movsar like three months later, and then depending on how Pitbull; if Pitbull goes out there and does a great showing, alright. There's another one at the end of year. If not, we'll see."
He continued:
"So me doing this and being this active defending champ again, I'm back in them conversations for well obviously Ilia... Imagine he got the belt and then we did the rematch after? You know, that's a massive rematch or we just do the rematch later on. It just makes the rematch even bigger."
This is the overarching plan that the native of Australia has in his mind. But before there can be an Ilia Topuria rematch, he must get past Diego Lopes when he enters the cage with him on April 12 in Florida.